Pied Piper of Calves

Y'all must be so sick of hearing about and seeing scenery from my walks and bike rides.  Sooner or later I'll probably run out of material... but then again, maybe not!  I don't always get pictures of what I see.  This summer I've even seen what I think was a mink (and yes, I love that I made a little rhyme).  It was not a muskrat.  Whether I have an occasional treat of the odd mink, beaver, goldfinch flock, deer, heron or egret, I can always count on the cows.  I love the cows.  And especially the calves.

The cows pretty much ignore me as I pass by.  The calves are a completely different story.  They are fascinated by Ozzie and me.  They stand there watching us, mesmerized while limp grass hangs forgotten from their mouths.  

Ok, this one doesn't have grass, but sometimes they do, and this one is definitely entranced.  The other morning, Ozzie was even more interesting to them than usual.  Watch the Pied Piper of calves in action:

"Whoa, guys!  Look at this! Do you think it's a hereford or what?"

"Oooh.  I'm not sure.  He's so little!"

"It's one weird-lookin' cow!"

"Hey, you guys up there.  Wait up!  We're comin'!"

 It was so funny.  They were lining up and following along with us, until their mommas started mooing at them.  Then suddenly they all got startled and went running away across the field.

 "Kids!  You come away from there, you don't know where that critter's been!"  "Sorry Momma!  We're comin'!"

There's always a rebel in every crowd.  This one didn't listen to his momma.

Do you see why I love cow/calf-watching?  And they're a lot easier to take pictures of than mink.

I may have to get an enlargement of this one made for my wall.  Then I can see cows any time.

Cat got your tongue?

 I was probably four or five years old the first time I recall being offended by someone.

 On the above picture, I am the baby.  Isn't that a cute family all dressed up for church?  Well, a few years later, I was a very bashful child.  I remember that we were at a restaurant/event venue called Hickory Bridge Farms.  My dad would often call square dances there.  In case you don't know what that means-- at a square dance you have to have a "caller."  He tells the dancers when to "do-si-do" or "allemande left" or "swing your partner."

 This would have been in the 60s... on the picture above, the caller has the microphone.  Although at a real square dance, the caller stands to the side, not in the middle of the dancers for goodness sake.   It was a lot of fun to watch the dancers twirl around the floor.  The problem was that sometimes people would have the nerve to try to talk to me!  At the particular event I recall, a man kept trying to get me to talk to him and I kept hiding behind my mother and her skirt.  He got right down to my level, put his face close to mine and smilingly (and sinisterly to my little mind) said, "Whatsa matter?  Cat got your tongue?"  No, mister!  What would the cat be doing with my tongue?!  I just don't want to talk to you!!

This is a picture of Bogey, and I sincerely doubt that he was the man at the square dance, but  in my mind's eye, this is pretty much who I saw.   What if this guy got in your 5-year-old face and said that to you!  See?  Scary, huh?

I was highly offended by him making fun of me.  And I was embarrassed at being so shy.  Apparently this habit, this sin, of being offended has stayed with me until the present day.  That's been a long. long time.  It's been a constant struggle in my life.

This August, I attended a Joyce Meyer conference and I've been mulling over some of her points ever since.  I think God wanted me to be there just to hear this part of her message.  Here's some of what I'm trying to learn:

 --When you let yourself be offended, you are giving control of your day to other people:  you are at the mercy of what they say and do.  It makes ya prickly. 

Being offended doesn't fix anything or anyone.  It just makes you bitter, sullen, unhappy and resentful.

 --When you live in a state of offense, you get stagnant.  You stay focused on the person that offended you and on your own self-righteousness when you could be focused on God and His word.  God has forgiven me for everything.  Can't I forgive?  We reap what we sow.  I'd rather reap mercy, so I better not sow judgment.  (Galatians 6:7  "People reap what they sow...").

 --In the picture above is a crazy dead branch growing right out of an otherwise beautiful, healthy-looking tree.  Do I want to allow a dead, bitter branch to sit there in my life?  No I don't.  I need to keep saying, "I will not be offended."  and  "I am difficult to offend."  and  "I am quick to forgive."  And I need to keep praying that those words would be true.  And I need to continually pray for strength against temptation.  Romans 12:21 says "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

 --If you're still complaining about someone, you haven't forgiven them.  You still have anger or offense toward them.  Don't let your heart get hard toward people (like this road!).  We never have enough information to judge someone else's heart.  We only know what we know about them.  There's a lot that only God knows.  I need to forgive, get out of the way, and let God take care of justice.  Hebrews 10:30 says "For we know him who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay.'"  It's not up to me to make someone "pay" for offending me.

--This is disgusting.  It's a batch of hardshell crabs that someone dumped alongside the road.  They have reeked for days.  You know why they stink?  They are decaying.  Rotten.  Dead.  Corrupted.  Some people do things and say things that reek.  They are offensive.  Sometimes we just take things the wrong way because we are quick to judge.  Then we reek.  Life is too short and each day is too precious to waste it on being offended, angry, bitter or resentful (no matter the cause of the offense).  Keep in step with the Spirit instead.  "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."  Galatians 5:25.  Resist the temptation to attribute bad motives to people.  Believe the best about them.  Give them the benefit of the doubt. 

Remember Ephesians 4:26-27?  "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold."   The devil has to get a foothold before he can get a stronghold.  Don't let the sun go down again today with you still harboring anything against anyone.  Remember, if you're still complaining about someone, you haven't let it go yet.  Let sunsets remind you of this verse and this principle.  I pray that God will continue to remind me too.

Don't let the sun go down on your anger.

If you go to bed free of offense today, you can wake up to a fresh sparkling new day tomorrow.

 I Corinthians 13:  Love is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

 Ephesians 4:30-32  "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

With a heart clear of offense and sin, greet the sunrise:  "In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
   in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly."  Psalm 52:3

Joyce Meyer's book is called Power Thoughts:  12 Strategies to win the battle of the mind.

Homemade Awesome Sauce

Today was APPLESAUCE DAY.  The great thing was that Bekah had off school because of flooding (which affected us in no way at all, so it was basically a free day for her and a bonus for me).

Our creek is high, but it's not even over the road, which is not flooding in our neck of the woods.  Very fortunate for us!

On APPLESAUCE DAY, I load up my best big kettle and my jars or freezer boxes and head off to Mom's house.  She has already bought the apples and lovingly washed the pesticides off of them and dragged out all her big kettles, pans, cutting boards, knives--- and Victorio.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Here's the apples.  The variety is Summer Rambo (which Mom insists makes the bestest of all applesauces, and she's Mom, so she must be right.)  They don't remind me at all of Rambo though-- they don't look sweaty and mean and like they have a vendetta in mind.

Now this blog today is also a tutorial (just for you, Emily!  And anyone else who wants to know how we do it).

So, after the apples are washed, cut them off the core.  Don't peel them, don't slice them.  Just whack big pieces of apple off of the core.  Watch these experts at work:

Put 1/4 to 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of a large kettle.  We like stainless steel.  And if you have a rack to put in the bottom, that's nice.  It helps keep the apples from sticking and scorching.  Then, as you cut up the apples, toss them into the kettle until it is full to the top.

Well, I forgot to take a picture of "full to the top"-- but I think you can handle that.

Then put the kettle on the stove, put a lid on and turn the burner to high.  Once they start cooking, STIR THEM FREQUENTLY.  I emphasize this because you don't want to scorch your apples, believe you me.

As they cook they'll start to get mushy.  When they get completely mushy, you're ready for the next step.  You have to remove the peels from the cooked apples and make them into... sauce!  You can use a foley food mill for this.  We used to.  But it's slower and messier and once you've met Victorio, you will cast Mr. Foley aside without even a qualm.

Here's my Dad assembling our magnificent Victorio for us.  I don't know exactly what this apparatus is actually called, but it says Victorio on it, so we just roll with that.  You should probably get one.

You pour the molten hot apples into the hopper in the top, trying not to let any cascade onto the floor or onto your own tender skin.  (Good luck with that).  Then you simply wind the crank and voila!  Applesauce comes out one chute and peels come out the other and you're coming down the home stretch.  We just love Victorio.  He is so efficient!

That is STEAM coming off of that stuff!  Be careful!  Then you have to IMMEDIATELY stir in however much sugar you want.  Mom likes hers sweet.  I like mine slightly less sweet.  Today we used 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar for each kettle-full of apples.  Ya just hafta taste it numerous times until it gets how you like.  You must do this expeditiously because the sugar prevents your applesauce from turning brown.  I nice light color is what we strive for in our family.  We're picky about such things.

Now, if you are going to put this in the freezer, pour the sauce into a container that you can sit in a sink full of cold water to cool it off.  If you're going to can it, don't worry about it, hot is good.

Once it has cooled off a bit, you can dip it into freezer boxes...

Let the boxes cool some more, refrigerate them to get them cold, then eventually put them in the freezer.  Done!  (I know, put the lids on first).

If you're canning (which I decided to do with mine this year.  Mom froze hers), pour it into clean jars, heat the lids, wipe the jar tops, put the lids on, screw the band on, and put in a hot water bath and process for 10 minutes.  I'm going to need my own hot water bath after this is all over.  (You'll have to look up more details on how to can food if you've never done it before).  Then take the jars out with your special jar lifter, let them cool, hope the jar lids pop indicating that they are sealed and then you're done.

Well, almost done.  Then you spend an hour and a half wiping applesauce off every surface of the kitchen and washing all those pots, knives, measuring cups, more pots, spoons, spatulas... you get the idea.  We did 2 bushels of apples today: we started at 9 a.m. and were completely done cleaning up by 2 p.m.  And we even stopped for lunch.  Mom makes the best chicken corn soup ever.  It had rivels in it!!!  We had snickerdoodles too.  Mmm.

All done!  Guess what we're having for supper tonight??  :)  After all-- it is AWESOME SAUCE, I mean APPLESAUCE DAY!